AFP reports that (link here)
Indian state Kerala Education Minister M.A. Baby said his government would promote the use of open source Linux operating systems along with Microsoft in high schools in Kerala, India's most literate state which has a population of 31.8 million.
"We are against monopolies of multinational companies in any sectors," he told AFP. "So we would like to provide equal opportunity for both Linux and Windows-Microsoft operating system in the school curriculum."
But "ideologically I support Linux and Free and Open Operating Systems for IT enabled-education in schools," he added.
Open source advocates will be heartened by this development, modest though it is, given the size of the world software market. Still, we will have to wait and see which operating system wins out. Competitive dynamics seem to favor the innovator. So far, Microsoft has stayed ahead by continuing to innovate and provide advantages to those who have already adopted its software.
John Bennet, you say "So far, Microsoft has stayed ahead by continuing to innovate and provide advantages to those who have already adopted its software." I disagree. I believe that they maintain their leadership because of "first mover advantage" (they weren't really the first, but they were the first to get big), proprietary technologies that lock-in customers and the fact that virtually every PC comes with Windows pre-installed. I am no IT expert, but I do read lots of news related to software, especially Free(Libre) and Open Source Software (FLOSS). And I use computers intensively.
Microsoft has many great products, like MS-Office and Flight Simulator. But when we say Microsoft, we think "Windows". And the last major Windows release was in 2001 with the XP (a good OS even today). Service Pack 2 was a mere update. That's not what I call "continuing to innovate". Most GNU/Linux distributions that I know release a new version every 6 months or every year. FreeBSD releases a little bit slower, but I believe we've had at least 3 different versions (4,5 and 6) since 2001. Mac OS X has had 4 updates since 2001. All these Operating Systems (SOs) have brought a significant amount of new technologies or features with each release: Mac OS X receives wonderful reviews after each release; GNU/Linux has come from a barely usable desktop OS in 2001 to a great desktop OS in 2006; FreeBSD doesn't have as many followers but in my opinion they have evolved a lot more than Windows.
Ok, you can say that the great reviews for Mac OS X are a consequence of some "Steve Jobs Magic" or effective marketing; you can also say that it's easy to innovate when your product is not mature enough (the case for Linux 3 years ago, for example). I agree in some sense. But now that there is not so much "hype" around Mac OS and Linux is a real option for your desktop, we will se how things evolve. What I see is Microsoft offering features in Vista that are already present in the Mac OS or Linux... and in both of them, these features don't require as much hardware. What I *don't* see is Microsoft losing significant market share...
There is some gossip in the IT world that Microsoft has lost some talented developers and/or that their current staff is not very motivated. Supposedly, this is due to policies that don't encourage innovation. I've even read articles in magazines about this. I think this magazines were not FLOSS magazines... Anyway, it's just gossip, I can't say it's true.
On the other hand I know a few people here in Brazil that love working for Microsoft. But their reasons for liking it have nothing to do with a great enviroment for new ideas and innovation. They like it because they say Microsoft trains them well and provides great carreer opportunities.
